The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

It stretches the imagination to believe that anyone could compete with Havana. They are such a fine club.

Wind Dancers wrote:We think the Commish is playing games with us. :)

On the other hand, we could be preparing for a contraction draft in the backrooms of our Toyama hideout.

Draft? We love drafts!!!

But on the serious side of things, I hope this is all smoke and mirrors - it'd be a shame to lose some of the storied teams, locals and rivalries - a Crystal Lake move would be sad.

Sources very close to the PEBA board have strongly indicated that with the foreclosure petition issued on Ms Padilla that the choices for the Ocelots are stark. Unless the Board can find a buyer for the franchise in the next week or so they will have no option but to expel the Rio Grande Valley side. I understand that there is at least one interested party but it is unlikely that a deal can be struck due to the large outstanding debts of the franchise.

The Board of the PEBA will have to set a dangerous precedent if they bend over backwards to accommodate any potential buyers of Rio Grande Valley Ocelots. One thing for sure is that there will be a veteran quartet of Ocelot players hitting the free agent market this off season. 32-yr-old pitcher Jun'ichi Yoshino and 33-yr-old second baseman Mario Tessier will not have their contracts extended, saving at least $32 million, whilst 33-yr-old right fielder Cheol-chung O and 33-yr-old DH José Padilla will have their contract options bought out by Ocelots saving another $31 million.

The shaving of over $60 million off the franchise's payroll will undoubtedly please any potential new owners but they still have the replace the four who started 288 games in 2023 while making many more appearances off the bench. The replacement of popular veterans with second-raters or raw rookies will undoubtedly lead to a weakening of the product on the field. A product that is on a two year post season run and has over three million through the gate for the past two years, the first time that total yearly attendance has topped the three million mark in franchise history. Will that remain so as the team disintegrates around them? During the previous 13 years losing streak the attendance dipped once below 1,000,000 and made very few appearances over the two million mark.

While it is certain that the franchise is worth saving it is uncertain that the recent progress can be maintained, progress that some people claim has been achieved by breaking the financial limits of the franchise. “Chickens coming home to roost” is a popular opinion and if Rio Grande continues in some form or another it is clear that it will probably be several years before they see the post season again.

When our weekly briefing conference was cancelled at very short notice I sent out a few feelers to see what it was all about and what I found surprised even me. Turns out the Commish wasn't in the building, and, according to the Office of the Commissioner's staff, he wasn't even in the country.

My inside sources tells me the PEBA Commissioner is off on an island supposedly negotiating a sale of a franchise to potential new owners who pledge to resurrect the franchise and keep it safe. It sounds good, but their first demand seems to be the one that will scupper the deal.

Much as the PEBA needs new blood to make strong stable franchises the feeling is that as well as the ownership being outside of where the PEBA have a desire to be, their number one demand is against the principles of the new Commish. Sensible people are trying to sway him but the prospects are not good. Rejection though could be the death of a franchise?

The Commissioner is fiercely protective of the independence of the Office, he has no desire to compromise that by becoming the GM of …..

Politics makes strange bedfellows.